Ghosts of Belka
by Col.Foley
Summary: After the Belkan War the ace pilot known as the Demon Lord dissapeared. Now, 20 years after that fateful war Ustian intelligence gets a lead that the Belkans are trying to find him. A 5 person team is assembled to beat them to it, this is their story.
1. The Gathering Forces

It began as all such things did, as all such chapters of life, and as all such adventurous. Quickly. But it was one of those things that began loosely with very many different people working at different ends on one problem. And one problem at a time.

The true beginning of the story began in Directus, as it began nearly twenty years before, and then again four years ago for what was popularly called...'The Unsung War.'

It began immediately for Captain Luis Ortega, a watch officer for the signals office for the intelligence arm of the Ustian Airforce. He was an immigrant from Osea shortly after that great conflict had begun. And as all such people, immigrating at eighteen to a new country with a new language, he saw the quickest way to citizenship was the proud Military of his new country. The only thing that remained of his homeland, his politics were strictly of Osea. Which did not make him many friends here, who were politically motivated. Thus he got 'stuck' in intelligence. Even though he secretly loved it as he would a girlfriend of long acquaintance or a wife.

And if it was two things that Ustio was proud of, were its Airforce, and its intelligence services. The former almost single handedly winning the Belkan war, and stopping a World Without Boundaries. The fact that most of them were mercenaries was completely beside the point.

In the front of the room, a young Lt.'s phone rang, she picked it up and listened intently to the frantic pleas coming from the agent on the other end.

Her eyes widened..."Alright stop, stop, this channel IS NOT, I repeat not secured." She then placed the phone on her slender shoulder as she turned to look behind her. "Sir, Captain! We have message traffic coming from EAGLE-5...emergency escape"

EAGLE was a code name for an agent in place of very high standing and valuable information. -5, the only one still functioning, was a head researcher at North Osea's Grunder industries. That despite the war everyone suspected that they still had Belkan sympathizer in place that could ruin everyone's day. The Ustian intelligence was the only one to have an agent in place. And they were very careful not to steal, too many, Osean secrets. Only information relating to Belkan double-dealings.

This made this the only major information that this agent snuck out. And he now wanted to be extracted. Ortega picked up the phone.

"Go ahead."

The voice on the other end of the phone sounded remarkably calm, at least from what it had to have been five minutes ago. "I need to get out. I need to see you in person. Right now, this is not a joke."

"Agent: You do understand that you have never given us anything before."

"Yes!" His voice broke into a terrified squeak... then Ortega heard a distinct sigh. "Look, I know I have not been valuable. But this is whopper. I over heard a former Belkan Colonel talking to a woman about it..."

"What man?!"

"They are looking for something."

"What?... this is a secure frequency."

"Not secure enough for this!" The agent spat into the phone. Then another breath, "They are looking for something that Ustio once lost."

Ortega's eyes narrowed at that. His mind was racing, there were several things that Ustio had lost, both material and persons. In reality, and just to the public. "Alright..." he bought up a computer screen showing outbound flights from North Osea directly for Directus. "Get on the 1602 flight number 29, it is an international charter bound for Directus, I will have one of my people meet you there."

A final sigh. "Thank you."

Ortega leaned back in his chair and waited, putting his hands behind his head. A frown formed on his face as he got back up to go into the main room and make the orders that were necessary for the mission at hand. But he got an eerie feeling that this would be his greatest yet.


	2. Meetings

In DIA, four hours later, two officers were waiting for the plane to land. Mark Wilson, Captain, another recent immigrant, Brown hair, short, and had a frown on his face from waiting for his contact.

The other officer was the beautiful, and knowing it, Abi Parker. She was tall at six foot one inches, she had reddish brown hair that was cut wickedly short as it was kept behind her ears in strands. Looked quite like a boy almost. Her piercing gray eyes was hidden behind sunglasses. All and all. A very well built frame, physical too. Skinny enough. She knew from her periphery that she was attracting glances, and second looks at her body. She kept her lips in a thin smile.

A teenaged boy, must have been around seventeen, perhaps eighteen years of age, turned his head in her general direction, glanced at her, and then gave her a second glance and a once over. She was getting a lot of those as well. Once-overs, and second glances. And at twenty-five, why not?

A smile formed on his lips as he made one step toward her. Her smile increased a little, not much, but she inclined her head in the other direction. The boy took the hint and left, frowning as he went.

"Why do you do that?" Her colleague said in a miserable grump.

"Why not?"

"For an intelligence agent you do stick out like a sore thumb, I wonder how they ever let you have this assignment."

"I wanted it." Then she turned to him and saw that he was still not happy, maybe not about that but still. "Look. The looks I do not mind. But to go anywhere else, you will need to get to know me first. I am just not going to let them get beyond 'reconnaissance' without normal dating and getting to know. I am quite modern in that regard." Then after a moment her features broke into a wicked grin. "I will not even let you into the batters box until I really get to know you."

His features also broke into a smile at that one.

"Direct flight from North Osea, now landing." The auto voice over the intercom said.

"Show time." He said as he got his game face on, another frown, as he began to walk to the designated area.

She stayed about five steps behind him, taking her sunglasses off, as her main function was to provide support to him if anything untoward happened to the poor hapless person at all. Her face cocked to the side and her smile faded into a curious expression as she looked one way, but kept her head the other. Always scanning, looking for any threats along the way.

Five minutes later they got to the zone, and kept back away from the area. Letting all the other people get off first, and rendezvous with their families. Then he came, nearly at a full run he was walking so fast, Abi could see that sweat was dripping off his brow. Even though the only photo they had of him... sucked beyond all measure...it was defiantly, him.

They moved up to him as he cleared the other, both of them flanking him to make sure he did not panic and try a fast one on them.

"Dr. Kaufer I presume?" Wilson made the contact.

His eyes darted between the two of them quickly. "Are you the Ustian officers?"

"Yes, yes we are." Wilson again responded.

"But how do I know? You could be Belkan, Osean, or Yukes in collusion trying to get me to talk, or kill me."

"You are just going to have to trust us." Abi said with a small smile on her face.

He looked at her for a second time, but as if for the first time, the look on his face changed to one that was like he had not seen a pretty woman in months, years even, a look that was dangerously close to hunger, it was there for only a second, but it was still there. Abi frowned that she did not like one bit.

But the effects of her femininity did seem to calm him down ever so slightly. "Alright, alright, I will go with you."

Wilson gestured in front of them as he swept past, at more of a natural pace now. The two intelligence officers shared a worried look. She just shrugged as she moved in front of Wilson. He then followed ten seconds later.

They got back to the base nearly fifteen minutes later, in the Suburbs of Directus. Ortega and a senior Colonel were waiting for the three of them in a plush office/conference room, with comfortable seats.

The door swung open with a swoosh automatically admitting the three of them into the room. The Colonel gestured for the Dr to take a seat. Which he did, gratefully. Wilson also took a seat at the far end of the conference table. Abi went to the right side of the door, and folded her arms down ward on the lower part of her stomach, staring intently into the room.

The place was even complete with a waitress, a petite, and skinny-as-a-rail, strawberry blond. She got a glass of ice water off her tray and put it down in front of the Doctor, he patted her hand there and held on to it for a second.

He then reached for his glass and took one giant slurping gulp from it. Draining it in a couple of seconds, or nearly so.

"So...Doc...why did you ask to come out?" Ortega asked.

"I have information vital to Ustian interests."

"We know this. But what information could you have, speak now." The Colonel said testily.

"They are searching for him."

"Who is him?" Ortega asked with a gesture of the hand.

"Galm, 1. The Demon Lord, The Knight of the Round Table, the Hero of the Belkan war."

"But he is gone, he went missing, along with his F-22 just after the Belkan War ended. Never to be seen again, I might add."

"Well, they are searching for him. And from some of the things the Belkan Colonel said that I over heard, they got some sort of evidence that started this, something that could be used to find him." He paused finishing off his drink, then starting to chew on an ice cube. "You see, I know some of the story of the Belkan War, and its after math, being inquisitive. I know, or at least suspect, that after the war ended, you hid him. Where? I do not know. But he grew tired of war, and of conflict, and strife, killing your best friend does that to a man. So he left, and you out of honor, fulfilled his request. Cutting him out of the registry, perhaps giving him a new identity. But giving him enough money where he could live out his life in a place of his choosing."

The Colonel tensed up. He did not know if any of this was true, or how much of it. But it did seem plausible. The official report said he left the country. But what if? He stroked at his chin. "Captain." He ordered gently. As he lead the two of them to a side room to the back of the conference area. The waitress was there, she started at their entrance.

"What if?" he asked Captain Ortega.

"Well then we need to ask the President about this, see what he wants us to do. He is right. It is a matter of national honor, and pride."

"Right"

"We should also get The Oseans in on this one. They might have something that we could use."

"Right, I will call the ambassador tomorrow."

"Sir you might want to go directly to Ourad for this one."

"Really...hmph."

Blaze, that was still his call sign despite being out of the cockpit for so long, or doing his current job, liked to be called. He was now the commanding liaison between the Airforce, and the President. A surprising job for someone who was only a Lt. Colonel. But it was a good one for someone who had also seen too much of war. As such though... he saw all incoming message traffic. Delivered to him daily from an airwoman.

Today's contained an interesting message. Information on the Mercenary pilot 'Demon Lord'. The Ustians were still laboring under the false impression that he was Osean, he was not, and they had told them those hundreds of times. But no such luck in convincing them. Blaze of course would run it down. Being a bit of a recent history buff, especially when that history had effected him so personally. But it was one thing to help him do.

Ortega was ushered into General Moore's office, head of the Military Intelligence of all of Ustio. The old Marine, Special Forces, has his hand steepeled and a deep frown on his face. His two stars on his shoulder glistening brightly. The Colonel, who headed up the Airforce section, was already there.

"You are late," he said.

"Sorry sir, could not be helped, despite the five days of reprieve, this is moving quite fast. And it is the middle of the night. Our assets are moving to confirm Kaufer's story, no luck."

The Colonel looked sympathetic for a moment.

"No such time, heck no such time to confirm either" Moore deeply growled. "We have to move quickly. Who knows how much of a head start they have on us. We know nothing."

"Nothing sir?" Ortega asked

"Nothing at all. Just nothing. At the end of his war, the President at the time ordered his records either sealed or destroyed. I cannot touch them."

"You can't, but then who-"

"Only the President, Vice President, the Joint Chiefs, and the chairman of the FBI can look at those files. And they have, they have been opened up. But most of those are service records. And biographical information and that is limited. The rest has been destroyed. Nothing to really help us after nearly twenty years of rotting. The information is out of date, and most of it is useless in determining his new identity any way."

"The trail is cold."

"That it is Captain." The Colonel said again.

The General froze for a moment, only his breath coming out, Ortega thought this odd, but stood there. The tension building. "Which is why The President has asked that a special investigative team consisting of Military officers, and Special Police to look into any file, any hint, legend, or superstition surrounding the whereabouts of 'Demon Lord' find him, and protect, or warn him. He has no idea this threat is out there. Time to put an end to the Belkan War, once, and for all. Let's bring him home."

Ortega thought that was a dismissal, and turned to do so. "Oh, and Ortega, you will be on the team."

"Will I be leading it sir?"

"No, heck no. One of his old colleagues will be leading it from the Belkan War, a Lt. back then. Crew chief for the entire base that the Demon Lord was at."

"Oh...when do I leave?"

"You head for David's airbase immediately. Go home, tell your wife you love her, then come on back, for the long haul."

"Aye Sir."


	3. The Team Assembled

It was team meeting day, just over twelve hours after they all left their homes, to go do this. Abi was at the head of the table, closest to the door, the room was well lit, but yet had a very secretive flair to it. The team consisted of five men, she was the only girl. They were of all ages, but most of them were from the military, the two other civilians were well dressed and looked good. One's dress and posture screamed "FBI" to Parker. The other she could not place at all...despite his expensive dress, and obvious high-class life style. She was the most junior on the staff, the roster was given by the President, and they all looked at it before entering this room.

"Alright. I am Colonel Michael Harkness, quartermaster's office for our airforce, and I will be leading this team. Probably because I know the Demon Lord, and saw him in person. On more then one occasion. Let us each take turns introducing each other so we can all know each other, and work on our objective. I have been in the Military since 1994."

Ortega snickered at the getting to know each other part, reminded him of the first day of high school, that was fun, not.

"Oh is that to me then...well, I am Lt. Colonel Cameron Holtz, I have been in the Military since before the Belkan War, like to watch Sci-fi, and the occasional comedy, and for the last five months I have head up the Belkan section of the Military Intelligence, I am of the Airforce."

"Right," The man to the right of Holtz said in a thick Eurusian accent. "My name is David Shea, I am special head of the Directus branch of the FBI, the senior investigator. I have been a Cop all my adult life, and even a little before that. Since 1989, after that, in 1993, I was promoted to the FBI field office, getting my current assignment in 2003. I will be third in command for this mission."

"I am Captain Luis Ortega, signals office, Airforce Intelligence, senior watch officer. I like Tennis, extreme sports, watching my television, and hot...beaches."

"I am John Hicks and I work for the..."

Abi interrupted. "John Hicks...the reporter?"

"Yes."

"Why the hell would they let a reporter in on this?" She asked again, genuinely bewildered.

"I might be useful" Abi frowned at him. "Look, as you might remember- oh wait...you might not." A rueful shake of the head. "I did an investigative report on The Belkan War, primarily on our 'friend' here, and on operation 4101. The campaign to liberate Ustio. But my primary focus did become the events as seen by the Demon Lord, or at least the men who did battle with him. I even ran into Solo Wing Pixie. Of course I will not reveal where that was."

"You see he was the only one to actually actively try, and put together a profile, for the Demon Lord. He wanted to find him." Colonel Harkness said with a strong gesture of the thumb.

An uncomfortable silence filled the room, people kept on darting glances at her. "Oh right... sorry. My name is Abi Parker. I am 25 years old, turning twenty-six in two days time, and I work in the field division of Ustian Airforce Intelligence. I hold the rank of Lt. that really is all there is to it."

"Right. The President himself has ordered us all to come together for the long hall, you know what that means? It means that we are here until we find our target, and get him alive. Or he is found dead in an alley somewhere. The Belkans screaming it at the top of their lungs that they succeeded."

"Which they might not do." Ortega pointed out.

"Right. Each of us has come here because we are special, and can do special things. We all can help the group as a whole, moreover, we will be reporting directly to the President."

At this point Abi noticed that Holtz was looking at her slightly, she gazed back at him, but he quickly averted his eyes back down at the stack of papers in front of him. Abi did find this a bit odd. But had to get back to the job at hand. Or the mission, or whatever it was that they were going to do.

"Right, L-T-C Holtz has the documents for us, he was kind enough to fetch them for us on his way in from where he was stationed. Colonel, have you reviewed them?"

"No sir."

"Well...keep up! You could have reviewed at least something and given us a summary."

"Sir, the Joint Chiefs said that there was nothing in there of value."

"A second opinion is valuable Colonel!"

"Which I thought is what we were going to provide right now with this team of ours."

He closed his eyes slightly in frustration, Abi smiled to herself slightly, she did not know who was 'right' but she admired Holtz for not backing down from the team leader. Who probably should not even be here. The only reason was that he 'knew' the Demon Lord. Abi decided right now, the real leader of the team would be Holtz, or perhaps Shea?

"Alright. We will break off into teams, or one-man groups, each looking over these documents and any others in the future that we might find. Hicks! You will be the only exception. I want you to start on any news sources that you can find. Even go back over all of your research, wake up as many of your old sources as you can. But make your inquiries lightly. I do not want to tip our hand to the Belkans, as odd an event as that is"

Hicks inclined his head, somewhat sarcastically, but very seriously as well. "Yes sir" He said simply.

"Other then that. I want you to all go into the hotel in town, get a good night sleep. Wake up refreshed, have a large breakfast. Tomorrow we start, and sleeping and eating may become irregular. Remember people, we are on the clock."

"Yes Colonel Harkness." Several voices said. Ortega just nodded once before he left, while Hicks and Holtz just left the room without saying a word. Leaving Colonel Harkness to ponder his new mission, and the team that he now had to lead.

As for Abi, she checked in twenty-five minutes later, at 2301 hours. She wanted to get a light dinner first. Which she did. She checked in at reception, having very little actual luggage, she figured that she did not have to live off of much, and that they would be home in a month anyway. She walked up the stairs, never liking to take the elevators much.

When she got up and turned into the hallway on the fourth floor, she saw a man just leaving his room. He looked up at her entrance, his older looking face cracked into a small smile, his gray hair moving up with it, and his two day shadow prickling out ever so slightly.

"Ah, Abi. Good to see you. I see we are going to be neighbors for this sojourn."

"Yes."

"I was just heading down to their all night diner for some last minute dinner, wanna join me?" he said.

"No, sorry. I would, but I just ate."

"Oh, that is too bad. Maybe next time?"

"Maybe" She smiled at him before entering her room, listening him leave as he whistled a familiar tune. Badly, but it was there.

She entered and turned on the light. Looking at the small space. The first thing she did was unpack her nightgown. And she slipped out of her working clothes, and into it. In preparation for bed.

Before she did, she got a small glass of water from the sink and drank on it thoughtfully. Thinking about the long and difficult road that was ahead of them. But to think. That they were the first ones in over twenty years to see the Demon Lord, if he was still alive, they would go down in some sort of history book.

And even for intelligence officer, that was not a bad thing, was it? And the down side was that Mister Hicks was likely going to end up with the first exclusive interview in over all that time. What luck for him. With that thought, she climbed into bed, pulled over the covers, and turned off the light.


	4. The Hunt Begins

It was their second day on the case, late on the second day. And they were already hard at work. They had already read all of the files on record, and now they were branching out the search.

The second suggestion their leader had made, also was a good one. He ordered them all to start with the most unlikely and most insane of the stories first. The rumors, legends, and half-truths. Although in the long run this was suggested by Colonel Holtz. Who was working quite closely with Abi so far, they were bouncing ideas and theories off each other.

Since Breakfast on the first day, they had worked straight through without break, reading everything they could. Stopping long enough for the occasional sip of Coffee or Water. Then on the second day, they got up, and ate breakfast, and then past through lunch already without many serious pauses. No leads yet. Colonel Holtz was working hardest, but yet he was the most automatic of the group, his eyes taking in every detail of the Documents, and wild ass rumors that they were now sifting through.

"Hang on," Shea said, and then he waited for everyone to focus on him. "Here is something. Five years ago a man was admitted to the county insane asylum. Insisting he was the Demon Lord, quite wild about it. Was detailed in his description. It is not much, the report says he was quite deranged but it might be worth a look."

"It is probably-" Holtz started.

"Holtz, Parker. Go down there, talk with him. Let us run this lead down. It will be killing me if we don't." Harkness said putting his hand on the table.

"Yes sir." Abi again said saluting, while Colonel Holtz just frowned at the outer wall.

Eighty minutes later, as the sun was going down past the mountains, casting dark shadows on the ground. They were driving the government rented SUV, trying to swerve past the new rush hour traffic.

They turned left, and went on the country road, where they parked in the parking lot to the county, really country, insane asylum. The only one in all of Ustio. And undermanned at that. But fortunately Ustio had very few insane, even in proportion to its small population. Osea seemed to get all the bad luck in hat regard.

They entered the room, Holtz opening the door for her as they entered the white walled building, and white floored, and white apolstered, and white... Dolphins?

An elderly Doctor waited for them, and he said in a distinctly Belkan accent. "What can I get for you?"

"We are wanting to see...uh... patient 3-5-8." Abi said.

"Oh really?" The Doctor said with some disbelief. "And you are, family?"

"Colleagues of his." Holtz cut Abi off with a look.

"And it took you this long to find him?"

"We realized that this man matched a description of an employee that has been missing for seven years, we want to see what happened to him." Holtz said, trying desperately to ignore the look Abi was giving him, the look that was doing a great job of concealing her puzzlement.

"Right this way, I will take you myself." The Doctor said as he led them to the man's ward.

They entered, and it was surprisingly white. The man was sitting against one corner, with only a chair and a workbench for company. Papers were scattered across it. Holtz picked on up and stared at it with curious disbelief for a few minutes. Studying it. They seemed to be recent 'logs' of the Demon Lord. Remarkably detailed too.

"Hello, who are you?" Abi asked gently.

The man stirred a bit. And inclined his head slightly, peering at what must have been the first actual woman who was actually concerned in him for the past five years. "Who wants to know?"

"Abi Parker."

"And, I am Colonel Holtz."

"Airforce?"

"Oh yes." Holtz nodded slightly. "Now, would you answer the Lt's. question?"

"I am the Demon Lord... the Knight of the Round Table...Cipher."

"Interesting."

"He knows his call sign? How could he know that?" Abi said turning to Holtz hoping he would have the answers.

"What is your name?" Holtz demanded of him.

"Joseph, I do not know my last name, the medicine makes it so hard to think on days. Began with an 'H' I know that."

"Abi lets go."

"But he knew the call sign, no one but us knows that."

"Obviously someone else does." Holtz said as he turned to leave.

Abi turned and looked after him. Before rushing to catch up, her arms outstretched to her sides.

They arrived out, Holtz ripping out the keys precisely as he pressed down on the button unlocking the SUV.

"He knows everything, his call sign at least. What was that all about?"

"I know, I just know who it is, OK? And that is not him. Who knows? The Belkan war did terrible things to men of all classes. And everyone that I have known after the War, it was truly horrible, especially the after math."

"Then who is it?"

"I have no idea, maybe maintenance, maybe a junior pilot, maybe 'Solo Wing' doubt that though. Who ever it is, has suffered greatly. I will recommend we send in a psyche team to take a look at him."

Abi brooded in silence for five minutes, Holtz looked over at her repeatedly as he drove. "Hey, do you wanna get some dinner?" He asked her.

"Sure... but we really should get permission first."

"Well, we do not have to, I mean the dear Colonel probably expects us to take most of the night interrogating that poor soul."

"But still." Abi said looking at him.

"Alright. I will dial in." He did so. "He says yes, take the night off. We have worked enough today. Shall we?"

"It's a date." She said.

Holtz turned off onto the ramp heading back into town, to some place that he knew served the best food. For the longest time.

To Be Continued...

Complete.


End file.
